Would a small insect die from an impact after dropped from a large altitude?

On a world with no atmosphere, the bug’s fate would resemble our own. The terminal velocity issue depends of course on the masses of the accelerating objects (the bug and the world) and the duration of the “fall” It’s only our atmosphere that puts a limit on the velocity of the fall. The bug if “dropped” from above our atmosphere would burn up like any other shooting star. Remember the dictum about dropping a feather and a10 ton block from 100 feet above the moon, and both objects arriving at the same time?

I don’t think so. Would a feather, or a leaf, shatter when dropped from a large altitude?

If it’s a small insect, it’s much moire likely the the prevailing winds would deter him from going straight down and picking up much gravitational pull at all. Further, if it’s a flying insect, why wouldn’t it fly away by itself?

There is not one that could be reached, too much air resistance.

How can insects fall from proportionally insane heights and suffer no damage?

I’m pleased to have found this for you, as I’m largely a ‘catch and release’ critter person.

@ibstubro once again, it’s the resistance of the air that saves the bugs. Remove the atmosphere and it’s “bug on the windshield.” @Dutchess III Maybe not shatter. Leaf or feather on the windshield might be less dramatic.

It is not making sense to me to say that insects have a low terminal velocity because they are light. Gravitational acceleration is the same for light objects as for heavy ones. In a vacuum, insects would fall at the same rate as we do. It is also not making sense to say that the fall of an insect would be affected by wind. If we think of the atmosphere as a fluid, the relevant factor would be density. Are insects less dense than humans? I would think that insects, like humans, are mostly water and would therefore have about the same density.

If there is no air there is no terminal velocity. Gravity will just keep accelerating the falling critter.

Terminal velocity is the speed at which the force of gravity is balanced by the friction of passing through air, and a steady speed is attained.

It depends on the ratio of the weight to the surface area of the bug.
Weight is proportional roughly to the cube of the radius of a body while area is proportional to the square.

@ragingloli, what, exactly, constitutes a “large altitude”?

@Dutchess_III

I think an aerodynamically neutral object, having aqueous density, reaches terminal velocity when it has fallen 484 feet, in static air conditions.

@Brian1946 However, a “large altitude” is too subjective. He could be talking about 484 feet, or 400,484 feet, and that would make a bit of difference.

@Dutchess_III…400,000 feet that’s an interesting scenario.
With very little atmosphere above 100,000 there isn’t a terminal velocity, something will be accelerating at the rate of the Gravitational Constant until it does encounter enough atmosphere to make a difference.
After falling 300,000 feet in near-vacuum, before getting to the earth-hugging atmosphere in the last 100,000 feet of the fall, Wolfram Alpha tells me a thing would be going 3000 miles an hour, 1.3 km/sec.

Next question: From 300,000 feet will the bug burn up when it does encounter the atmosphere?